For this wedding day I traveled back to my home state, Georgia, to shoot an absolutely amazing detail-filled wedding at the Marietta Country Club in Kennesaw. The night before the wedding, the bride and groom gathered their family and friends at the Glover Parker Brewery located in downtown Marietta. This night was filled brews, great atmosphere, stories about the bride & groom and great food. 

The next day we headed to the Marietta Country Club (funny enough located in Kennesaw). The bride and groom chose to both get ready there while staying separated until the ceremony. Potential couples - Please consider getting ready at the same location! This allows us wedding photographers to be able to go back and forth and get as many great photos as possible without having to commute between different locations! It can also help make a timeline a little more streamlined. 

The bride and groom’s getting ready photos were both taken in their respective locker rooms. Vibes were high with champagne with the gals and post golf beers with the guys. The guys did take quite a while to put on their corsages, which was quite difficult to watch…

Our main objective of the day was to hide the bride from not only the groom but also the wedding guests. It was also important for the couple to have a private vow reading without the groom seeing the bride. We tucked away to a secluded spot surrounded by trees right next to the golf course. This moment was very meaningful and the bride and groom were able to successfully embrace each other after their vow reading without the groom seeing the bride in her beautiful princess dress. 

SUCCESS!

After we accomplished the most important logistical event of the day, it was time for a wedding! The ceremony was absolutely beautiful overlooking on of the holes at the golf course with a beautiful lake. The couple said “I do,” kissed and then the party started! Cocktail hour featured atmospheric jazz from the incredibly talented Empire band and also coffee provided by Aviator Coffee Company. There are simply too many details to list as the bride planned her day extensively with everything you can think of from: 

A bourbon tasting table, a fillable crossword puzzle based on the couple, wedding magazine, a live watercolor painter for the wedding guests (), designed matchboxes, etc. 

I might have to make a separate blog on all the details she included!

After we skated through family formals and headed into the reception the wedding party made their grand entrance with the bride having prepared a special surprise video for the groom. The couple had an explosive first dance complimented with cold sparks and then dinner was served!

The rest of the reception featured incredible energy and dancing fueled by the Empire band’s electric set. Once it was time to call it a night, the bride (with an outfit change of knee-high white cowgirl boots) and groom paraded through the sparklers and cold sparks to the getaway car - a Rolls Royce. 

This bride thought of everything providing me with a wedding that was a dream to photograph. I am so lucky that I get to meet such great people and capture their memories :)

We kicked off October heading down to Moab in southern Utah to capture a macabre proposal at one of the world’s most famous sunset spots - Dead Horse Point State Park. The name Dead Horse Point is very apropos for this particular proposal as the ring box was a specially designed black skull ring box all the way from Ukraine! The couple arrived at the overlook just after the beginning of golden hour. We got super lucky as there was quite the crowd hanging around where the proposal was going to go down. Somehow most of the crowd dissipated just as our proposer went down on one knee. She did such an amazing job! One thing I recommend to my proposers is to stay down on a knee longer than you would think. You’d be surprise how many people immediately pop up after going down on one knee during a proposal. After the “yes” was said the couple and I captured celebratory photos around the red rock, basking in the glorious Dead Horse Point sunset. This might be my new favorite proposal location in Moab! We ended up staying during the entire sunset. As it got darker we did a few fun photos with lanterns - this definitely added to the spooky, Halloween vibes of the proposal. It’s truly amazing that as a wedding photographer and proposal photographer I get to travel to some of the most beautiful places in the world capturing the happiest moments of people’s lives. It truly is a dream and an honor. :)

Sneaks from this past weekend in beautiful Montrose, Colorado. The bride and groom picked such an amazing location for their big day that was filled with fun, dancing, and cowboy hats 🤠

Located about 42 miles from Salt Lake City, Antelope Island is one of Utah’s hidden gems for a wedding photographer. From the moment you enter the causeway, you see the great expanse of the Great Salt Lake with views reminiscent of the Bonneville Salt Flats with half the drive time! On this particular afternoon, the sky was overcast and the air was quite chilly. London & McKay opted to dress in denim & low cut Chuck Taylor Converses. I absolutely loved the look of the denim and black Chuck T’s against the wispy brown vegetation & rocks at Antelope Island. I highly encourage couple’s to dress down like this for their next engagement session! Save the formal look for your wedding day! Overall we had a fantastic session and I can’t wait to go back to Antelope Island for another engagement session to explore all of its stunning features!

Hi! My name is Jordan Varela and I am a Utah wedding photographer based in Salt Lake City. While I enjoy all aspects of a wedding day as a wedding photographer, there are some special moments that are especially fun to capture behind the camera. Below are a few of my favorite moments to photograph at a wedding.

Located in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, Liberty Park houses 80 acres of green grass, sports facilities, water features and a stunning Aviary. On the weekends Tracy Aviary is not only a large zoo featuring a wide array of different avian species from around the world, it is also a wedding venue. Built in 1852, and located inside the Tracy Aviary, Chase Mill is the oldest industrial building in Utah featuring a beautiful below-ground circular amphitheater and surrounded by luscious gardens perfect for a summer wedding.

It was a moody overcast day in Ogden, Utah. Rain was in the forecast all day and the wedding ceremony was set to start around noon. As I drove up north to Ogden from Salt Lake, I couldn’t help but worry that we might see some raindrops.